I laugh to myself when I sing the hymn “Away in a Manger.” No crying he makes (verse two)? If the Christ Child was fully human, then he cried. He demanded care and attention just like my children did. Before Ben was born, I stuck to a regular routine of dusting, vacuuming, mopping the kitchen, and cleaning the bathroom once a week. After Ben was born, I found it nearly impossible to get any housework done. I was always leaving the mop standing in a bucket of water or abandoning the duster on the fireplace mantle because the baby started to cry. I like to imagine Mary getting up in the middle of the night to feed Baby Jesus. I picture her changing his diaper, washing him, interrupting her housework to tend to his needs. These are acts of devotion. Jesus Christ demands no less of us today. Do we hear his cries? Will we interrupt our own work to tend to his needs? His needs are the needs of the hungry, the lonely, the prisoner, the outcast. We must do as Mary would have done for her baby. We must care for Jesus by answering the cries of the children of God: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Help me, O God, to interrupt my daily work to answer your cry.
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